Still Bros
by Jenrukiforevz
Summary: When Marcus thinks Kristy is acting suspicious, he and Keenan prepare a stake-out in order to find out what she's up to. Marcus & Keenan friendship for The Light's Refrain.


**A/N: Secret Santa for _Light's Refrain_. This isn't great, but I hope it at least entertained you a bit.**

* * *

"I don't know, Marcus, this really isn't any of our business …"

"We both know that Kristy's business, is our business."

"But what makes you so suspicious all of a sudden?"

"Who comes to school on a Saturday? Tell me that's _not_ suspicious."

"Well, you're right but-"

"Stop stalling and follow me!"

Keenan sighed and reluctantly did as he was told. He hadn't expected to be spying on Kristy that day, but when Marcus had called him earlier demanding he come over to the middle school at once, he knew that he didn't really have a choice in the matter.

Now, he and Marcus were slowly approaching the school's entrance once Kristy had already gone inside. Keenan was pretty sure they could've walked to the doors just fine, but Marcus insisted they be sneaky.

Once the two had successfully made their way in, Keenan couldn't help but ask, "How did you know Kristy was here anyway?"

"Oh, I've been stalking her all day," Marcus replied as if the answer was obvious.

"And why is that?" Keenan pressed as they climbed up the stairs they had spotted Kristy climbing a few moments before.

Marcus shrugged and whispered, "I wake up with these weird hunches sometimes. I refer to it as my ' _brotherly sense_ ,' if you will. I just felt the need to follow her today."

"Of course you did," Keenan rolled his eyes.

"Hey, you be quiet," Marcus shushed. "Besides, she was acting sort of weird this morning."

Keenan considered finding ways of convincing Marcus that his plan was completely unnecessary, but knowing him, it was a futile effort. Although Keenan was sure Kristy probably had a perfectly good reason for her behavior, he was also sure that Marcus was too stubborn to listen to anything he had to say on that topic.

Meanwhile, Kristy appeared to be heading for the very top of the building, because at every floor, there was no sign of her.

"What can she possibly be doing up there?" Marcus questioned as they reached the sixth floor. There was only one more floor after that, and then there was another set of stairs at the end of the hallway that led to the roof.

At that point, Keenan was unsure of how to respond because he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation either. "She's probably in some classroom next floor…"

However, when the pair got there, there was no sign of Kristy anywhere.

"This means she's up on the roof," Marcus stated, an eyebrow raised. His face scrunched up and Keenan had the strange feeling that he was scheming something.

He was right.

"Say, Keenan…" Marcus stared at him, seemingly very concentrated. "Can you still do all that cool climbing stuff from when you were in the Digital World?"

Keenan saw where he was going with this, so he simply asked, "What do you want me to do?"

Marcus gave him a wide grin and pointed at the nearest window. "Naturally, if we go up to the roof, she'll notice us."

"Yeeeees…"

"So all _you_ have to do," Marcus explained, "is climb out the window and check out what's going on from below. You can use the top ledge as a foothold."

"Then what?"

"Report back to me of course!" Marcus exclaimed. "Now go!"

Keenan obeyed, confident that he could get the job done. After opening the window as much as was possible, he crept onto the bottom ledge and stood outside. With a small jump, he was able to catch the top ledge and pull himself up. He positioned himself on his knees so that his head wouldn't be in sight, then crouched low and watched the spectacle before him.

Sure enough, he could see Kristy clearly from his spot. However, he noticed that the angle was a little off. That's when he noticed that he was seeing her from behind some dude's legs.

Keenan suddenly became worried. The guy's back was facing him, but by the way Kristy's mouth moved and paused periodically, he could tell they were having a conversation. Keenan tried to make out what they were saying, but the wind was too strong to hear anything.

Annoyed, Keenan wondered what was so important that they had to discuss it on a roof? Couldn't they have just talked elsewhere? Unless…

He nearly fell as he realized what was going on. Quickly, he bent backwards, hanging on to the ledge by only his feet. With a swift motion, he threw himself into the classroom again, carefully spinning in midair in order to land on his feet.

Marcus was all over him in seconds. "What's she up to? Is she communicating with aliens? Now that I mention it she must've been possessed and led all the way here from the alien base-"

"I think some guy is confessing to her," Keenan interrupted.

The moment those words left his mouth, Marcus stopped. Slowly, his facial expression changed from confusion, to disbelief, and to anger before settling there. "Are you sure?!" he sputtered.

Keenan bit his inner cheek, his mind in a whirlwind of panic. He wasn't 100% positive about his theory, but he had watched enough anime to get a good idea of what was going on. "I don't know, but it looked a lot like it."

Without another word, Marcus ran off, presumably to the staircase. Keenan reacted as well, speedily climbing out the window once more.

Marcus was already bursting through the roof door by the time Keenan was back in his old position. Normally, the wind would've interfered with his hearing, but Marcus' voice was so loud that it broke the sound of air rushing past him.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

Keenan watched as Marcus stomped towards the guy, who had been leaning on the building's railing next to Kristy. Before he had any time to take in the situation, he was picked up from behind by his collar.

"Marcus?" Kristy burst. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Marcus retorted, shaking the guy side to side.

Kristy raised an eyebrow and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Following you of course," Marcus muttered. "You were acting suspicious this morning."

"I told you I have a headache!" Kristy yelled.

The guy was still hanging a couple inches off the ground when he attempted to speak up. "Hey, um, if you wouldn't mind putting me down-" Keenan recognized him as an upperclassman, but otherwise knew nothing about him.

Marcus took no heed of him and shook him further. "You don't expect me to believe that, do you?" he continued.

Kristy hesitated before replying. "Well, no," she admitted. "But I was _hoping_."

"Well, then who's this guy?" Marcus emphasized by shaking him even rougher, causing his glasses to fall off.

"He's a member of the robotics club."

"And?"

"I'm a member of the robotics club."

"And?"

"And what? What else do you need to know?"

"Why you're here on a Saturday?"

"If you were home for dinner yesterday you would know," Kristy sighed. "I agreed to come here so that we could test this drone we've been modifying."

Keenan noticed at that moment that Kristy was holding a remote control in her hands. He also noticed a small, circular object strewn on the floor a few feet away.

"But why on the roof?" Marcus pressed, trying to find a loophole.

"Drones _fly_ , doofus!" Kristy threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "There are a bunch of trees outside so we figured the roof was a safer place to fly it!"

"Sooooooo," Marcus drawled, averting his eyes to the ground. "He _isn't_ confessing?"

"No!" Kristy practically growled.

Keenan sighed in relief. He had never agreed with Marcus' overprotectiveness, but for a second he felt it too. He guessed he was too attached to her already.

"Welp." Marcus dropped the guy afterwards. "Sorry, kid."

"Don't mention it," the guy chuckled nervously and left.

"God, Marcus, why do you always ruin everything? Where did you get that stupid idea from anyway?" Kristy rambled, pacing back and forth angrily.

Marcus puffed up his cheeks and murmured, "That was all Keenan's fault."

Keenan instinctively sensed that it was time to leave. He hurried to go back down, but it was too late. Kristy immediately gave a cold glare in his direction. How she had known where he was, he wasn't sure, but he sure as hell didn't want to find out.

With the speed of a roadrunner, she sprinted to the part of railing Keenan was under and shouted, "Don't you even dare come pick me up for school on Monday!"

Keenan dodged a punch and dived into the window with agility he hadn't known he could manage. He had a feeling he wouldn't be so lucky next time.

* * *

"Still think this was a good idea?" Keenan grumbled.

He and Marcus had gone to get ice cream after the whole incident as a way for Marcus to apologize.

"As long as you apologize enough, she'll eventually let it go," Marcus assured.

"I guess…" Keenan still felt like he had committed some sort of injustice.

The pair remained in silence for a while until Marcus asked, "Hey, we're still bros, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Keenan responded. Marcus wasn't a person that anyone could deal with, but Keenan was one of the few that could. And as much as he hated to admit it, Marcus was one of his very few friends; he couldn't afford to lose him,

"Good." Marcus punched Keenan playfully on the shoulder. "I promise to not pull another stunt like that ever again."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Keenan laughed.

Marcus shrugged. "You're probably right. Let me rephrase: I'll _try_ not to do that again."

Keenan smiled and shook Marcus' hand. "Deal."


End file.
